Dog Saves Family, Dies In Fire 3 Badly Burned

House Destroyed

NEWPORT NEWS — When Angel and Amanda Tucker decided to name their new Labrador retriever after a witch last Halloween, their mother told them OK - but it had to be a good witch.

The two youngsters named the puppy Elvira, and Tuesday morning Elvira proved very good indeed. The Tucker family had no smoke detector when flames and smoke raced through their one-story Newport News home shortly after midnight, but a barking Elvira sounded the alarm and saved their lives.

Elvira's barks roused Sheila Tucker, who awoke her husband, David. Together they saved Angel, 7, and Amanda, 4, but not before the two children and father were badly burned.

When all the Tuckers were safely outside, David Tucker discovered that Elvira was still in peril, so he returned to the flaming house and suffered more severe burns - but was unable to save Elvira, who perished in the fire.

"I don't think it's possible to replace her," a sobbing Mrs. Tucker said hours after the fire that had destroyed her home. "I'd just give anything to have her back. She was gentle with the children. Perfect. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have them and I wouldn't have me."

David Tucker, 28, a painter for Suttle Motor Corp., received second and third-degree burns - which involve destruction of the skin - over his face, arms, chest, back and hands. He was listed in serious condition at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's Burn Trauma Unit Tuesday afternoon.

Angel, a student at Hidenwood Elementary, received second- and third-degree burns on her arms, feet and legs; Amanda had second- and third-degree burns over her face and hands. The girls were in serious condition at Sentara Norfolk Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Fire investigators say the blaze began when a shower curtain and other items behind an electric clothes dryer ignited from the heat of the running dryer.

The room where the fire started was near where the children were sleeping in the home at 2 Center St., about a quarter mile off Warwick Boulevard near the Glendale section. Fire officials estimated the building loss at $40,000 and contents at $20,000. Mrs. Tucker said the family has insurance.

The Tuckers added Elvira to their family of pets when the puppy was five weeks old, said Mrs. Tucker, owner of Pet Palace, a pet store in Grafton.

On Tuesday morning, about 12:30 a.m., the puppy was sleeping on the parents' bed and began to bark.

``I woke up and saw the smoke," Mrs. Tucker said. "It just started drifting into the bedroom.''

``I yelled for David and told him `The house is on fire,' " Mrs. Tucker said. Together they went to the den, which led to the door of their daughters' bedroom.

Mrs. Tucker said she tried to open the children's bedroom door, but it wouldn't budge. She stepped aside for her husband to try and then ran out the back door.

She said she broke the daughters' bedroom window for a possible rescue attempt, then turned and saw her husband emerge from the back door, carrying the girls.

``He just barely got out when something exploded,'' Mrs. Tucker said.

By then, she said, flames were shooting from the broken window.

After a brief pause, Mrs. Tucker said, her husband asked how she'd been awakened.

``I told him Elvira's barking,'' she recalled.

Her husband, clad only in undershorts, immediately ran back inside the house, calling the puppy's name and searching each room, using his hands to guide him through thick smoke, Mrs. Tucker said. ``He went all the way through and came out the front door saying he could not find her.''

"David got burned worse because he went back into the house looking for Vi," she said, sobbing.

Firefighters later found the dog's badly burned body near the back door, said James.